Dispositions toward the teaching of ethnic-racial issues in school Sociology

A Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Abstract

The inclusion of the theme of ethnic-racial relations in the scope of Brazilian basic education constitutes a legal, political, and pedagogical imperative, consolidated from the enactment of Laws No. 10,639/2003 and No. 11,645/2008. These regulations create the obligation to teach Afro-Brazilian, African, and Indigenous history and culture, recognizing the strategic role of the school in building anti-racist dispositions and in overcoming historically produced inequalities. In this sense, understanding how the ethnic-racial theme is formally prescribed and effectively mobilized in the teaching of Sociology implies simultaneously analyzing the normative instruments that guide teaching practice and the dispositions that structure the actions of agents within the field of school Sociology. To this end, based on the Bourdieusian framework, this article presents the results of a multiple correspondence analysis that crossed information related to approaches to the ethnic-racial issues in Sociology classes with social properties associated with the trajectories of public school teachers in Maceió and Rio Largo, in the State of Alagoas. Overall, the results pointed to the fact that the existence of legal dispositions does not, by itself, guarantee their effective implementation in the daily life of classes, since practices are mediated both by institutional structures objectified in official documents and explicit regulations, and by dispositions incorporated throughout social trajectories.